- Increases in energy prices may be felt in the public EV charging network
- Charging companies warn of rising prices
- Network costs have increased dramatically over the past three years
Many public EV charging network providers have warned that rising energy costs could be passed on to EV owners, as the price per kilowatt hour of charging on the public network could increase, as companies look to cut losses.
According to a Sky News report, there are warnings that charging companies may have no choice but to pass the cost on to drivers, while ChargeUK notes that companies are facing massive network costs that have risen by an average of 462% over the past three years.
Speaking to the news agency, one Osprey charging station in Wolverhampton said it reported a 38,570% increase in its annual fixed costs from 2021, from £87 to £33,651 this year.
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“Our super-fast charging points need a very large grid connection to create the peak value we’ll see in the future, but we have to pay in full for that large grid connection today,” Ian Johnston, chief executive of Osprey Charging told Sky News.
According to ChargeUK’s 2025 white paper, the public charging network has seen a sharp increase in prices of 38% from 2021.
The cost increase is primarily due to energy costs, which now comprise two-thirds of chargepoint (CPO) costs, according to EV Infrastructure News.
In addition to this, the public network is made more expensive by the UK government’s policy tariffs, which add around 6 pence per kWh in an attempt to balance the drop in revenue from fuel.
Public charging also currently attracts 20% VAT, while household charging is taxed at 5%.
Analysis: A Catch-22 situation
Most of the big public charging network operators have invested millions of pounds in infrastructure “years ahead of the need”, according to Osprey’s Ian Johnston.
This means that most people believe that the number of electric cars on the road will continue to grow rapidly in the next ten years, when the money will start to be paid back.
But it seems many are already apprehensive, as the UK government continues to shake up targets for EV sales, pushing back its 100% electrification goal to 2035. Just 5% of all vehicles on the road are currently EVs.
This, coupled with the fact that prices are stagnant and energy prices are rising, means that costs are now, predictably, passed on to the consumer.
Tom Hurst, UK country director of Fastedd, which owns premises at the Palace Grounds shopping park in South Lanarkshire, said the company was now facing £41,000 in charges a year – almost four times the rent of the premises, according to Sky News.
“Although the station operates on 100% renewable energy, these fixed costs, combined with higher VAT on public charging and rising energy prices, ultimately reach drivers.
“We take many of these costs to keep prices low for drivers, but policy measures need to be taken,” he explained to Sky News.
The whole situation is a painful Catch-22, many EV owners need to let these big companies make a profit and encourage competition – and hopefully lower the cost of public charging – while potential buyers are stymied by the lack of fast and affordable charging infrastructure.
After all, the eye-popping price of fast public charging is disproportionately affecting the one-third of UK households without off-street parking.
Despite the domestic and domestic EV charging systems that the UK government announced in April of this year, it must get a handle on the public charging network, reduce VAT, deal with policy taxes and reduce fixed costs, if there is a chance to convince more consumers to go electric.
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